For the Blogsphere, Thank you, God

I am grateful to whoever discovered the blog sphere. How much poorer I would have been without it!

I entered this sphere 4 years back, a little after I crossed that half a century mark on the linear plane of physical existence. My experience in this sphere has been like an antioxidant of the mind which stalled the aging process from setting in.

The blogs I enjoy and read most are those of youngsters . I discovered or rediscovered the present generation in the blog sphere. I must confess I had the same stereotyped notions about the “I T Generation”. They were selfish and insensitive to social issues. All they knew and cared about was the computer and its peripheral world. They knew nothing unrelated to their jobs, and they didn’t care about it. They are job jumpers who cared for nothing else in life other than material comfort.

“Oh, this IT generation” seemed to be the attitude that informed my very approach to them.

The blogsphere gave me new eyes to see them. Of course, it is the Indian bloggers I have in mind 'cos I visit them mostly. I have discovered these youngsters to be more socially informed and sensitive than my generation. Their concern for social and political issues is touching. There is that will to do something for the society which nurtured them and made them what they are. There is that frustration at their helplessness in this regard. There is anger and cynicism. There is raving and ranting.

But what is absent is indifference. Being one who always believed that indifference to fellow human beings is the greatest sin, I was ecstatic to realize that this generation is not guilty of that sin. A huge myth was debunked. I think the world is in safe hands.

The blogsphere has reaffirmed my faith in mankind.

There is yet another category of bogs that I read- of the teenagers. I visit the sites of Indian and international bloggers. The teenage angst which has always been an enigma to us has suddenly become somewhat comprehensible. Some of these bloggers pour out their hearts into the posts. Others record their routine which gives you an excellent insight into life of adolescents in different cultures. I realize that blogsphere is a very authentic document of the life and days of the youth journeying through that precariously balanced bridge that links childhood to adulthood. Novels and studies do not have that vibrant beating of the adolescent pulse that causes the blogsphere to tick.

I read hate blogs too. I hate reading them but do it, nevertheless – just to tell myself that there is a dark dark world out there, and the ostrich approach isn’t going to make it disappear. Some of the blogs justifying Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Holocaust and post Godhra violence have left me stunned. I tried responding but was quick to realize how naive I’d been to think I can make a difference to such hardcore philosophy of hatred.

And I love poetry blogs. Every rule in the book regarding the architectonics of versification is usually broken in these posts – except one. The basic rule that you ‘feel’. My efforts at writing poetry which I would not have dared to show to a another living person have been posted in the blogsphere. Strange that the blog visitors never ridicule! There is some unwritten law of charity among the inhabitants of this sphere which restrains them from throwing cold water on that poet in every human being struggling to come out.

Blogsphere is a free world where there are no moral or social compulsions. This freedom, more often than not, is used in a very responsible manner, if you leave out the hate blogs. It has exploded the myth that absence of restrictive order will cause anarchy. I have seen social commitment of the highest order here. I have seen that most bloggers show a reluctance to spread cantankerous ideas.

And finally, for me as for others, blogsphere is the site where each blogger confronts herself. It is the space where we share our dreams and nightmares, our frustrations and helplessness, our bitterness and teeth gritting anger, our sense of the ridiculous and sense of humour, the works. Yet, it is not a site where we dump our dark secrets and private problems – if at all we do it, it is done with a delicacy and camouflage which raise it from the level of a mere act of washing dirty linen in public. There is a self imposed discipline in most bloggers which stop at that point where dignity is compromised.

These are the qualities of the sites I visit – and believe me I surf through a lot of blogs. For me, it is like moving through life, keeping my eyes, nose and ears open to this business called life. It is a real and true learning in that great virtual university of human nature. We bloggers form the students and the faculty of this university. It is a university with a very large heart, throbbing under the skies of an unlimited horizon, with no restrictions whatsoever in the disciplines offered, and defies the unities of time and space.

May the blogsphere prosper!